A sentencing hearing for noted computer hacker Adrian Lamo has been postponed from Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Lamo was scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court to be sentenced, after pleading guilty to an unauthorized intrusion onto the computer network of the New York Times in February 2002. That sentencing is now postponed until June 2004, the spokesperson says.
Reached by telephone, Lamo declined to comment, saying only that the hearing was postponed "due to a need for a postponement." He referred all questions to Sean Hecker, an attorney from the Federal Defender's office who has represented him. Messages left for Hecker on Thursday afternoon were not returned.
The sentencing follows an agreement reached between Lamo and federal prosecutors in January. As part of that deal, Lamo pled guilty to hacking into the Times' computer network and accessing a database containing personal information for more than 3000 contributors to the paper's op-ed page.
It was unclear Thursday whether the postponement signals a breakdown in the agreement between Lamo and the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Publicized Holes
Before the break-in at the Times, Lamo had built a reputation as a so-called grey-hat hacker who probed the computer defenses of high-profile companies such as Cingular, Microsoft, WorldCom, and Yahoo, often finding previously unknown back doors into sensitive areas of those networks.
He was not authorized to penetrate the networks, but often publicly disclosed his forays and sometimes worked with the companies to close the holes he discovered. The Times learned of Lamo's intrusion after the young hacker told journalist and former hacker Kevin Poulsen about his forays.
Lamo also earned the moniker of "Homeless Hacker" for his itinerant lifestyle, often spending extended periods wandering the country or living on the streets of San Francisco. He is currently attending college in California.
Earlier Lamo had expressed hope that his sentence would adhere to the terms of the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors and let him continue his studies, but he says he is willing to accept whatever sentence the judge would impose.
"I know what I did has consequences. I'm prepared to accept those and get on with my life," he says. With the sentencing delay, Lamo will have to wait a few more months to learn of his fate.
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